Saturday, July 31, 2010

I am doing Sharing Time again this week --- we're juggling schedules a little to accommodate vacations (including mine)...

This week's theme is: Jesus Christ is a God of Miracles

The (official) Sharing Time Outline is pretty simple and clear this time, so I'm pretty much following that.... (Guess the word "miracle", define it for the kids, tell 2 stories of miracles, let kids act out/do actions to stories....)

2) Deborah Raymond had the idea of using fish as a tie-in to the two stories suggested in the outline and a couple other miracles, including feeding the multitudes and walking on water... She's making an incredible little craft to give her Primary kids --- which is way more ambitious than I would ever be! However, she also designed a simple handout (and even thoughtfully provided it in black-and-white) and I think I'll probably go ahead and print that (or make something similar).

I'm so glad people are willing to share their ideas!

Oh, and thanks to whoever put my link for the last Sharing Time I did onto Sugardoodle --- I'm flattered!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

(This is the follow-up to my previous post about planning this week's Sharing Time)

Well, I think my attempt at actually presenting this Sharing Time went ok; my one problem (as is often the case) is judging how long activities will take... With this particular one, my timing mistake was basically that the songs are too long to have the kids to hear/sing the whole thing - or even the 1st verse, really....

For both Junior & Senior Sharing Times, I set up by placing the various posters all around the room --- propping them on chairs, the chalkboard, the windows, etc. I also had a cd player set up for the music.

With Junior Primary (ages 3-8) I read the scripture to them, showed the picture of Christ's example, then let them pick a "modern" equivalent picture. I played the first bit of the corresponding song, having them raise their hands when they recognized it. Then I played the rest of the song and talked a little about it --- or at least I did that for the 1st set! Then I realized my time was already half gone... For the rest I mostly had them match the pictures and played only a couple of the songs they were most familiar with. (My apologies to the teachers for going over, though!)

So, for the Sr Primary kids (ages 9-11) I read the scripture, had them find both pictures, and then played the instrumental version of the song, only --- again having them start singing (or at least raise hands) when they recognized the song. I left the song playing while I summed up each topic... I did get through 6 of the 7 that way...

The (official) Sharing Time Outline suggested splitting the kids up and having different groups/classes look up the scriptures, match the pictures & songs, etc. I couldn't see that working with our particular Primary group at this time, though. We have a fairly large and extremely "lively" group of Juniors, and most of them are under the age of 6 and can't read much, etc. It isn't easy to get them focused in the first place, let alone splitting them and then bringing them back together, etc. For the "Senior" group we might have been ok, but we only have them split into 2 classes....

Anyway, I think it worked out ok....

Thanks to all who left kind and encouraging comments on my initial post! I don't know if/when I'll have anything particular to share in the future, but I'll certainly be more likely to post ideas when they occur! In the meantime, I plan to lurk around eclaires singing and sharing time blog now and then because I like what she did with this one, too! (She commented on my initial post and then posted her own "results")

Good luck to you all with future Sharing Times! Oh, and if you are inclined to post/share your own ideas/experiences with Primary on your own blog (or whatever), feel free to leave a comment telling us where to look!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

I'm second counselor in our (church's) Primary these days, and working on a Sharing Time for the upcoming week. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry about it --- I'll soon go back to yapping about my kids' Birthdays and other earth shattering family "news"... or, you are more than welcome check out the 2010 Outline for Sharing Time page on the official LDS (aka Mormon Church) website!)

Anyway, the theme for this coming week is: Jesus Christ’s Example Teaches Me How to Live. One suggested activity is to have kids match up pictures of Christ setting an example of a gospel principle (such as prayer, baptism, etc) with Primary Songs about the topic and, of course, with related scripture references. There are four suggestions for "matches" in the outline and I thought of a couple more. I also decided I want to use two pictures on some examples - one of Christ and one of "modern" people doing the same thing. The pictures I'm using are all in the Gospel Art Book (GAB) and the songs are from the Children's Song Book (CS). Here's my list:

5. Christ's Example: sharing/teaching the gospelpictures: "Go Ye Therefore" (GAB ___?) or "The Sermon on the Mount" (GAB 39) and Pictures of Modern Missionaries (GAB 109 and 110, or photos from own ward if available)song: We'll Bring the World His Truth (CS 172)scriptures: Matthew 28:19-20

6. Christ's Example: healing, serving the "afflicted", loving regardless of physical conditionpictures: "Jesus Healing the Nephites" (GAB 83) and Any poster/picture you can find with kids helping each other or visiting sick or such (I ended up with a poster showing a little boy helping a little girl ride a trike --- it's all I could find so far...)song: "I'll Walk with You" (CS 140-141)scripture: 3 Nephi 17:7-9

7. Christ's Example: His continuing love for us and His promise to Returnpictures: "The Second Coming" (GAB 66) and "Christ and Children from around the World" (GAB 116)song: "When He Comes Again" (CS 82)scripture: Matthew 16:27 (and Matthew 19:14 again!)

Just to be clear, #2, 3, 5 & 6 are the ones mentioned specifically in the official Sharing Time Outline, the rest were what I felt good about after looking through the various songs we are using this year and paging through the Gospel Art Book.... If you thought of some I didn't, PLEASE SHARE!

Also, since I figure our Primary Chorister is plenty busy already --- and since she goes into the Nursery and such while we are doing Sharing Time, I am just putting the songs I need onto a CD... The MP3s are all free to download from the church website, and, in fact, from the "Songs for Use During Sacrament Meeting Presentation in 2010" page, nonetheless :-)

Oh, and although I'm having the older kids look up the scripture references in their own Bibles, etc, I also printed them off in larger type for the younger kids --- very easy to do thanks to the church's online scriptures!

Hope this saves someone some time --- or that I get comments suggesting more!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

We had the idea for Emily's birthday party way back in April, and I'm very glad she didn't change her mind.... When I saw a bunch of cute little Easter hats in the dollar bins at Target, I thought it might be fun to let the girls decorate them with fake flowers, etc. Then, because we were shopping for birthday presents at the time, I realized that might be even more fun for Emily to do with her friends. So, I introduced the concept of a "Garden Party" - and told her that's like a Tea Party except with lemonade and ice cream.... The important part is you still get to "dress up"! Fortunately, she thought that sounded great --- and even more fortunately, she stayed enthusiastic about it through the ever so long months until we finally reached her Birthday!

We sent out invitations to 3 girls from church and 4 from school (2 of whom are twins, so Em got around my usual guest limit - you can have as many guests as the age you are turning). I experimented with how to attach the flowers and reluctantly settled on hot glue. (Luckily the low-temp kind held ok so I escaped without any blisters this time!) Many thanks to Julie and Cheryl for lending me glue guns!

When the guests arrived, the girls took turns playing some little card games and such in the front room and coming back to the kitchen to decorate their hats. I thought it would take me half the party to glue them, but my aunt, Jana Boschi, came to join the party and jumped right in to help! One of the little girls' grandmothers, Barb, also stayed to help, and I'm glad Natalie and Esther took an immediate liking to her!

After the hats were completed, we took the young ladies out front to play (an extremely simplified version of) Croquet. When they tired of that, we came in to open presents, and then have cake and ice cream. Then I herded them back outside to play until their parents came. I had wanted to teach them Bocce, but didn't find a set in time, so we just used the croquet balls again and bowled them at one of the posts...

All in all, I think things went quite well! (No tears, at least, which is saying a lot for 6-yr-old girls!)

Other Interesting/Entertaining Blogs

Be The Match - National Bone Marrow Registry

I have two nieces and a nephew with a very rare genetic disease, Fanconi Anemia. That is what finally got me off my rump to get on the marrow registry. I should have before --- I just never stopped to look into it. (I confess I'm a big baby about needles, too, but testing no longer involves a blood draw, anyway!)

Family of Readers

Below are some virtual bookshelves featuring various family members' favorite books. (The bookshelf widgets are a little slow/clunky, if three distinct sets of bookshelves are not visible, give them a few minutes to fully load and sort themselves out.... Or you can hop to one of our profiles: Matt's, the Kids, or Jen's)